Lviv Art and Wine weekend was held on November 12-13 in Lviv. Create among sirens”, which became a unique platform for supporting Ukrainian winemakers and artists during the war. At the event, a cluster of wine-making communities of Ukraine was created and funds were collected for the NEZLAMNI rehabilitation center project.
About 1,500 people attended the !FESTrepublic weekend. Funds from entrance tickets, a part from the sale of products and a charity auction were transferred to the project of the NEZLAMNI rehabilitation center – for the purchase and manufacture of prostheses for civilians and military victims of the war. The amount of collected funds amounted to about 230 thousand hryvnias.
At the event, 13 Ukrainian wineries and works of art by 15 artists created after February 24 were presented. Visitors listened to lectures about Ukrainian art and wine, took part in creative workshops and watched documentaries about culture and winemaking during the war.
“It is nice that such an event took place, where representatives of the ministry, deputies, heads of associations and winemakers gathered. The wine industry can have a good economic effect and does not need financial support from the state as much as attention and solutions to specific issues to help it develop. This event gave more internal energy and impetus for renewed cooperation. And we have already agreed to meet with several deputies in the near future in Kyiv to discuss these issues. And it’s great that the Lviv region, where there are many wineries, will now also be considered as a winemaking region,” says Svitlana Tsybak, head of the Association of Craft Winemakers of Ukraine and executive director of the Beykush winery.
In addition, the Wine Forum was held on Saturday, during which a memorandum on cooperation was signed between the eight heads of communities on the territory of which there are wineries. The cluster of winemaking communities of Ukraine will work on the development and promotion of Ukrainian winemaking and viticulture. The cluster community is open, any community can join it.
“15 years ago, we called a joint meeting of IT experts to create an IT cluster in the city. Before the meeting, they competed with each other. And now it’s one of the biggest brotherhoods I know. I believe that the wine cluster can follow the same path. Ukrainian winemakers should not work on the brand of a specific brand, but on the brand of Ukrainian wine as such, on the tradition of consumption and wine culture in general,” said Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy.
The forum also talked about the need to give wine the status of a food product, as it is in other foreign countries, changes in the DSTU, subsidizing winemaking in wine regions, development and approval of the state program for the promotion of Ukrainian winemaking in Ukraine and abroad.
Also within the framework of the Lviv Art and Wine weekend, there will be a pre-premiere screening of the documentary film Wounded Land (“Wounded Land”), which tells the stories of winemakers working to the sound of cannonades. The screening of the film can be visited for free with prior registration: https://forms.gle/GwRWGcGVv9pmhMmM7. Time and venue: November 15 at Planeta Kino (Forum Lviv Shopping Center) at 6:30 p.m.